Jamaica is the happiest country in the Caribbean and the 37th happiest country in the world. This is according to a United Nations-supported report which was released on Friday.

Jamaica moved up 23 places from its spot of 60 in the last report, with a score of 6.309.

Jamaica’s 37th place is just below Brazil (35) and Mexico (36), and just above Lithuania (38).

The World Happiness Report normally surveys the state of global happiness and ranks countries by their happiness levels by examining elements such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, perceived corruption, and generosity.

But the COVID-19 pandemic came around and changed things. This year’s report focused mainly on the relationship between public well-being and the pandemic.

“Of all the factors usually supporting happiness, the most important for explaining COVID-19 death rates were people’s trust in each other, and confidence in their governments,” the report stated.

The pandemic also made responses from around the 149 countries surveyed particularly challenging. As a result, some Caribbean countries were not included in this report.

Finland was the happiest country for the fourth consecutive year. With Denmark (2), Switzerland (3), Icelamd (4) and the Netherlands (5) rounding out the top five.